Crura Darkmine
Crura Darkmine (born February 11th, Year 65 BDPCrura Darkmine - The Mead Hall Wiki) is a fearless Dark Iron warrior and a master smith. She is the great-grand daughter of Corgra Darkmine, grand daughter of Criem Darkmine, and daughter of Crurose Darkmine. She is an heir to a dark and potent legacy, one that has led to a majority of her pain and suffering, the legacy of the Darkmine's. Though she was a loyal follower of Emperor Thaurissan, she would risk her own life defending the Alliance, proving that despite the rest of her ilk's villainous nature, she has a good heart. THIS IS FAIRLY OUTDATED! See the link to the Mead Hall Wiki Post for an accurate profile! Biography Early life Born to Crurose Darkmine and Corla Furyforge. Crurose, the Thane of the Darkmine Clan and career politician at the time. He was rarely home, and ever since testing Crura for magical aptitude and finding none, paid her no heed, she was worthless to him. Her mother on the other hand was a loving but strict parent, holding the honor as the captain of the personal guard to an up and coming general who was rising in prestige for his efforts in both the Badlands and his raids into Ironforge trade. But Corla found time to be a mother, teaching Crura the meaning of honor, of loyalty, and of order while also guiding her in the art of war. When her younger brother Dagrim was born, and when he proved capable of sorcery, Crura also saw little of him, as he was taken for training and tutelage by the best Shadowforge had to offer and by Crurose himself. Deaths in the Family By the time Crura's own career as a soldier was well under way, earning her reputation as an expert and intelligent fighter with a drive for perfection and a competitive drive that was only beaten by experienced warriors far older then herself. She was by their standards, a protege, but it was also the time her mother would be killed, slain protecting the general she was sworn to serve. Her mother was hailed and honored as a hero by the general, whose life was only spared by the sacrifice of Corla. In honor of her, this general took Crura under his own wing, proving tutelage in tactics, training in exotic weaponry and even promoted Crura to her mothers position as Captain of his Guard. In between her new training regime, she was also shown around the forge, the general knew from his own experience that the craft of a smith was an excellent form of strength and precision training. Crura similarly took to the craft with the same level of dedication and perfectionist attitude as always, proving a quick study. A few decades later, in a seemingly botched kidnapping of the wife of Thane Zulatobari Greatforge, would lead to the presumed death of her father, while no corpse was found he never returned to the Senate, prompting Dagrim, the chosen heir by Crurose, to take over the seat held by the Darkmine Clan and become the acting Thane. He was always a lazy and privileged dwarf, and proved ineffective at leading a Clan and constantly turned to Crura for guidance in such matters, who was far more adept at managing the clan's affairs while her brother focused on being horrible at politics. It was the only reason no attempt was ever made on his life, he was a fool despite his rather decent magical prowess. The War over Shadowforge Crura would spent the years mastering the art of war, earning quite the reputation as one of the greatest warriors of her generation and one seemingly capable of rivaling the champions of the past, the general had long since put her in charge of her own elite squad since the Dragons and Dark Horde took over the Spire, leading dangerous missions deep into the Horde's territory and bringing home only glory. But unlike similar squads, she rarely lost a single troop, and those she led became fiercely loyal to her, they were not fodder or meat shields like how most nobles treated their men when on a mission for glory, these were her men and their lives were in her hands and she'd die for them if needed. But when adventurers killed her Emperor, banished Ragnaros, and left a rift of power she was one of the many who did not nothing but wait to see who took command. As fate would have it, it would be Moira, and quickly violence would erupt in the streets as she began the process of removing the influence of Ragnaros and the Twilight Hammers Cult from Shadowforge City. A minor civil war of sorts and Crura would throw her lot in with Moira after a personal audience with the new Queen. After accepting a new position as one of Moira's champions, she was rewarded Core'splitter, the axe created for the champions of the Darkmine Clan, and an axe hungering for the essence of the elements it already sensed remaining in the depths of the city and in the Molten Core. And so Crura fed it, slaughtering the cultists who stood before her, the molten giants, the fireguard, even a few flamewakers. When the war was won, Crura asked one last boon from Moira. She asked to retire from fighting in the meantime and wished to obtain a further mastery of smithcraft to aid her kin while she mastered Core'splitter, and so she became the apprentice Torgrim Lavadeep, a legendary smith and ancient dark iron from before the days of the War of the Three Hammers. He taught Crura the secrets of dark iron ore, elementium, mithril, thorium, and a number of more mundane metals before finally teaching her the secrets of alloying dark iron ore with metals such as elementium and mithril to create "Dark Elementium" and "Dark Mithril" respectively. Exodus to Ironforge While not officially exiled, with Dagrim's disappearance, possibly dead, and Crura being the last living member of Clan Darkmine, would be one of the 'unlucky' ones picked to move to Ironforge to represent her people. It was seemingly a punishment for an unknown slight. To be forced to endure the presumed hatred and racism of their wayward kin. However, this was a blessing in disguise, Crura found more kinship among the Bronzebeards then she had ever before felt with the Dark Irons, and they were a surprisingly forgiving people who did not hold the sins of her ancestors against her as she thought they would, although many did and despite the shared kinship she never felt truly welcome. The Blessing of Stone and Steel To spend the days, Crura honed her smithcraft even further alongside legends like Vilmar Ironbrow and Furgas Steelgrasp. It was also during these days that she realized her skin was slowly turning to steel! She hide it for a time, only revealing it at last when it was too obvious to hide. Ironically, this was what made Furgas finally offer he rank and pay in Clan Steelgrasp. She'd achieve the rank of 'Battlemaster' quickly, later joining his inner council alongside the likes of Vilmar and Bathildis Ironstout. However, Crura never quite accepted the blessing fully, naturally not understanding it and finding very little lore regarding it she furiously held out and slowed the steel-skin to a crawl. Yet, she was starting to lose out against it, holding out solely because by this point she had gotten a crush on and wanted to remain 'herself', a mortal, for Modarin Slatefist and the prospect of raising a family with the paladin-priest. While in her partial sister of steel state, Crura was nearly unmatched in her drinking capability, in her strength, and in her durability. Only Modarin and Bathildis holding their own against her drinking ability with a literal iron gut. Similarly, only Furgas and Vilmar were matching her blow for blow in the strength department.Sister of Steel: Wowwiki Page Ulduar Realizing nothing a mortal could do could rid Crura of the Sister of Steel blessing, Crura journeyed north to the seat of the Keepers, to Ulduar with Modarin and allies in tow. When they reached the Titan City, they were met by Thorium who greeted them and presented them with three challenges to earn the request Crura sought, but as he left, he took her with him. The Keeper knew her allies would succeed, and began the process to reverse the blessing of Steel and Stone, finishing after they had beaten the first two challenges, the first being a mighty fire elemental from Ignis's own forge and a highly advanced turret in Mimiron's laboratory. The former earning the group Molt'ar, the Shield of Ignis, and the latter earning the group the broken 'Helm of Invention'. The final test was an all out brawl against Thorim himself, where it was Thane Vilmar Ironbrow who proved his worthiness to all who bore witness to his smackdown of the Keeper, earning him alone the reward of Thunder's Gift, a mighty maul possessed of the powers of the storm itself. Crura was returned, Core'splitter was shattered as it proved a vessel of her Sister of Steel transformation. After she recovered in both body and mind, she reforged Core'splitter into a one handed battleaxe, although the axe does keep it's potent enchantments and desire to absorb elemental cores, and inside it still lurks a fraction of the Sister of Steel blessing. The remaining elementium was turned into a tankard, and her old armor was hung up as decoration as she could no longer wear it. After forging herself new armor and wielding Molt'ar alongside Core'splitter, she returned to aid the Steelgrasp Brigade and has proved even more deadly as her agility waas returned. Even cementing her relationship with Modarin. Legion With the Legion's return, and her relationship at an all time high with Thane Slatefist, Crura decided that she could not try and raise a family in a world threatened by demons, that she could not risk a child or the process of having one when she may be needed in battle. More then that, she wanted the Legion gone as fast as possible and when Legionfall began it's recruitment to further beat back the Legion, she was one of the first to sign up, even resigning her seat on the Steelgrasp Mithril Council to fight the demons with all her focus and might. To create a world where she could one day raise a family in safety! She was down below when Xe'ra was shattered, and found a tiny fragment of the prime naaru that she kept close at hand. She didn't really know why, but it eased her mind. This would turn out to save her life when she was nearly killed by a Fel Lord, IF she didn't have that shard, she would have died. Instead, the shard embedded itself into her and healed the mortal wound, giving her wicked scar and when Crura awoke from her injuries weeks later, she would also learn that it offered her a small degree of control over the Holy Light, making her a sort of pseudo-paladin. While she had this crystal, her eyes held a noticeable golden tinge to them instead of the traditional dark iron embers. Battle for Azeroth After a brief time of enslavement by her great grandmother; Corgra, and torture at the hands of Glauric, Crura would forge herself new armor and focus herself once more on her craft, reversing the progress she had made among her Bronzebeard kin in favor of coldness and strictness, almost bordering on cruelness. Yet, the true cause was that her lover, Modarin, had thought her dead and moved on with his life. This destroyed her, making her humiliation at the hands of Corgra and Glauric even more unbearable. This in turn pushed her to seek the Blessing of Steel and Stone once again, realizing that her future is only one to be filled with pain and violence. She hopes that by becoming a being of stone and steel that she won't need anyone, that she can't be hurt emotionally anymore and that she'll have the strength to do EVEN MORE for Khaz Modan. Corgra would remove the shard that saved Crura's life at the time of her capture, removing her ability to wield the Light and noticeable dimming the fire in her eyes and reducing the fire in her hair. It was also learned later (by Davonna, Crura is not aware) that Corgra was burning the letters Modarin and Crura were sending between each other. Physical appearance Unlike the typical dwarven form, Crura is particularly brawny for a female dwarf, although obviously still a female she could be mistaken for a male dwarf from behind and from afar. Most notably lacking the typical dwarven 'hourglass' for a more square and well built form that is not lacking in strength or durability! Also unlike her fellow dark irons, her eyes don't burn quite as fiercely and seem dim in comparison to even the average dark iron. Something happened to her since its clearly not natural. She once had an extra-fierce glow from her days as sister of steel which was also lost. Armor Her full-plate armor is forged of a mithril-dark iron alloy that is more heavily based on dark iron. The craftsdwarfship of it is masterful and bears her makers mark, a double bladed axe with a stylized C. and D. on either side of the handle. Further inscribed on the armor are a number of designs that seem to relate to Steelgrasp Brigade, Crura's own accomplishments, and in a minor way- Dark Iron symbolism. She calls this 'Dark Mithril' as a shorthand to explain the components to it. Although the armor is relatively new and non-magical, having been forged by Crura after the Argus conflict, its 'scars' are growing. Weapons *'Core'splitter' has a storied history among the Darkmine Clan, it was first forged by Curiose for the Champion of the Darkmine Clan at the time out of pure Elementium located in a vein of dark iron deep in the core of Ironforge (before the War of the Three Hammers), a two handed greataxe, and runed by Corgra to wield the fury of fire and rend even earth asunder. Little did she know just how potent those enchantments were when Ragnaros entered Azeroth, and the explosion of elemental energies would alter the axes power, granting it the ability to absorb the essence of fire elementals to further boost it's already potent enchantments. The axe even gained a semblance of sentience, but only so far as to demand it's wielder slaughter elemental beings, regardless of what kind of elemental but specifically those of fire and water. When it senses their presence nearby. A demand that's hard to ignore even for Crura, and the reason why the greataxe was locked away until Moira gave it to Crura as a reward for her service. Reforged since its destruction (it was destroyed when she had the Sister of Steel blessing removed, as the axe had become a vessel for it in the short time she had wielded it), and appearing 'new', the runes are still old as is the power coursing through the heirloom. The axe itself is masterfully forged, originally by Crura's great grandfather and then reforged by Crura herself. The metal is elementium, with a few new runic additions from the Lightforged Draenei to imbue the axes flames with a holy edge. She used the rest of the broken original to create a tankard. *Finally there is Molt'ar, her prize from Ulduar from the actions of her allies and her endurance of having the Sister of Steel blessing removed. The act shattered her axe, and made her old armor, a set of Dark Elementium full plate far too heavy to use, but it gained her this shield. This clearly Titanforged artifact is a circular disc, its edges sharpened to cut if pressed against a cuttable material. Although made from titansteel, the border looks golden with titan runes inbetween each rivet in the shield. On the inner side where Crura holds the shield its similarly gold and flat, while on the outer edge its center within the golden edge seems to be a swirling pool of magma. Despite that, the magma is contained within an invisible barrier akin to unbreakable glass, but Crura can present the shield and unleash a torrent of titan-infused magma upon her foes! Personality and traits Intelligent, iron willed, and determined. These three traits define most of Crura, but where she was once growing in compassion and forgiveness, a recent event has had her turn around in those regards to become colder and more strict. Despite that, shes still willing to give her life to protect those entrusted to her care and isn't afraid to speak her mind when it comes to military decisions. She respects strength and honesty, and similarly detests weakness and trickery, although this has caused her to border on being headstrong at times and cruel at others. Yet, while she may not admit it to anyone or even herself, she takes failure personally, even if it wasn't her fault and it drives her need for perfection. Trivia *Crura is a high ranking member of the Steelgrasp Brigade, and well respected member of the dwarf community! Notes and references Category:Dwarf Category:Alliance Warrior Category:Dark Iron Dwarf